The five-year contract with Serco is due to expire at the end of March 2020.

Council officers have now recommended that Serco, which employs 400 staff in Lincoln, continues providing IT, payroll, HR, customer services, exchequer services and adult care finance until the end of March 2022.

But some services will be taken on in-house such as Freedom of Information, complaints and information governance and the Agresso payment system administration.

Chairman of the scrutiny board, Coun Rob Parker, said he and other councillors felt comfortable with the extension.

“It’s been a long slow process,” he said.

“But we are now in a position where we are comfortable that Serco has delivered on its key performance indicators.

“Payroll caused some particular concern in the early days and it took some time for that to be sorted out.

“We feel a lot more confident about Serco going forward with an extension of a contract.”